From Good to Great – using everyday opportunities to build a high-performance team!

Posted by Amanda Whiteford

For years we’ve been encouraged to see being strategic as the key way to drive performance, build our careers and develop organisational talent – but what about the ‘everyday’ opportunities that lay at our feet?

New research shows that organisations with great core management practices such as lean processes, performance monitoring, talent management and target setting actually outperform their peers by some margin but too few organisations realise this. Even those with great processes in one location often fail to replicate these elsewhere.

Why? Researchers found that in organisations where key metrics weren’t valued, there was a weaker understanding of the key issues and challenges facing the organisation. The false perceptions of team and organisational performance meant they were late to identify, manage and monitor problems. These organisations were also susceptible to over-estimating the cost and under-estimating the benefits of potential solutions. This led to the creation of blame cultures.

By introducing great metrics, process improvements and effective monitoring, you can build a high-performance team that really shines, and sharing that success with your colleagues will enhance the organisation even further when it comes to out-performing the competition.

Involve your team in:

1. Setting team targets that have a clear rationale and purpose and connect to the wider divisional strategy – you can do this at a team away day or hold special team meetings over a few weeks if that’s easier
   
   
2. Give each team member a part to play in meeting those team targets that offer them a suitable level of stretch and development, and link to their current roles so the targets are feasible and realistic for them
   
   
3. Involve the team in reviewing processes and procedures to see what really works well for them and their internal/external customers, and what doesn’t. Get your team talking to their customers about how things could be improved. Encourage them to visit other teams who are known for their high performance to see what new approaches they might adopt
   
   
4. As a team, develop some simple performance metrics you can review regularly together to see if the improvements you’ve made are working

In this way you’ll be working towards a strong team performance together, building on the knowledge and insights you all gain in the process, setting yourselves stretch targets and utilising and growing the talent in your team.

TAKE AWAY
Don’t assume the only way to develop your team’s talents is by involving them in strategic projects or helping them move into strategic roles. Instead, begin growing a talented management cohort for the future by showing your team how great core management practices help to build high performance in the team and in themselves. This will give them a better idea of how the business works, what management really entails, and some great metrics to talk about when they are ready for that next career move.

Note: more about the research can be found at www.worldmanagementsurvey.com